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Kuroo was not prepared for this. Not remotely prepared. He figured that cooking was pretty easy: Hinata always cooked and he usually managed to do some of his homework while doing it! (Well, he usually needed Kuroo’s help with the homework, but that’s beside the point.) Kuroo, however, didn’t even have the faintest idea how to turn the oven on. His culinary skills ended at plain rice and microwaveable dinners, sometimes he even managed to make cereal for breakfast (he’d swear up and down that Hinata changes where the box is every morning.) Kuroo had always been one of those people who could just sort of figure things out. He’d always been resourceful, and what didn’t come to him naturally he could make up for with hard work. Cooking, however, was a whole different animal, as he found out halfway through trying to prepare a romantic dinner for Hinata. His boyfriend had just made it to being a starter on their universities’ volleyball team, only halfway through his first year! Which meant that starting next week, he’d join Kuroo on the court at the beginning of every official match.
Kuroo was bursting with pride and was antsy to celebrate with his boyfriend in person and had foolishly decided that he should try and cook something for him in some grand, sappy gesture of love. The Kuroo of one hour ago was a bit of an idiot, as he hadn’t taken into account that Kuroo was rather disinclined in the area of culinary arts. He did most of the cleaning, and Hinata did most of the cooking, because Hinata is a bit of a slob and Kuroo can’t cook. Basically the heavens must have had a grand meeting when they realized that these two idiots were missing essential skills to actually be self sufficient adult and figured a good solution would be to make them roommates. Following that, have them fall in love. Kuroo had a dream about that meeting once and naturally turned to Hinata when he woke to tell him about it, and it’d been a running joke ever since.
The point is, Kuroo couldn’t cook. He followed all the instructions to the “t” and in the end, the lasagna looked like a sad pile of smushy pasta that someone had stabbed repeatedly.
Kuroo was slumped on the couch in defeat and ordering take out from the phone as Hinata walked.
“Hey, love.” Kuroo smiled, covering the speaker on his phone.
“Hey!” Hinata replied, standing on his toes to press a quick kiss to Kuroo’s cheek. Hinata was bouncing with energy as usual, despite having a horribly long day.
Then, Hinata saw the murdered lasagna and—being very excited Kuroo had cooked—immediately dropped his bag and went to taste it.
“NO—HINATA—“ Kuroo hissed, trying not to scream into the phone.
“I’m sure it’s fine!” Hinata rolled his eyes even as he smiled affectionately. Sure, he knew Kuroo was a bad cook but it’s not like it was going to kill him.
He took a bite, his face immediately contorting in a scrunchy-stink face that made Kuroo snort and nearly fall off the couch. Even Hinata’s disgusted face was cute.
Hinata stuck out his tongue and made another weird face as he muttered, his voice sounding betrayed, “You are a terrible cook.”
“Hey! You knew that already don’t sound so shocked!” Kuroo gasped in mock terror. “Have some pity for me, your wonderful boyfriend who tried so hard too cook you a nice meal in celebration of you becoming a starter!”
Hinata laughed and plopped down on the couch next to Kuroo, who immediately pulled him in close to snuggle.
Kuroo kissed him softly, then pulled away to say, “Congrats on making starters, babe. I love you.”
Hinata’s face and ears lit up in bright red, making Kuroo blush. “I love you too!”
Kuroo was so done for. (His face was burning red, Hinata never ceased to fluster him with his enthusiastically genuine statements. After nearly two years, Kuroo still had no immunity to it.)
They started kissing again, giggling every now and again, because Hinata always became giggly when he was really happy and Kuroo could never resist laughing if Hinata did, so eventually they just dissolved into laughter, comfortable and content.
“Wait,” Kuroo said, looking as if he had realized something life changing, “I should probably finish ordering that take out.”